The American Dream / Queen: Rock The World

 

'The American Dream': Released on 17 November 2017 as part of the 'News Of The World' 40th anniversary boxed set. Length 56 minutes.
'Queen: Rock The World': First broadcast on BBC 4 on 3 November 2017. Length 59 minutes.



Produced by Simon Lupton and Jim Beach
Directed by Christopher Bird

Thanks to Bob Harris
Queen archivist Greg Brooks
Picture archivist Richard Gray
Additional audio production by Kris Fredriksson and Justin Shirley-Smith
Executive producers for Eagle Rock: Geoff Kempin and Terry Shand


'The American Dream' is a new documentary, based on footage recorded by Bob Harris for a planned TV programme which was never finished. It features footage of the band in the studio, backstage, during soundchecks, and on stage at The Summit, Houston, on 11 December 1977. It also features some backstage footage recorded at The Omni, in Atlanta, on 8 December 1977, and some new interviews with Brian and Roger, as audio only.

Altogether, this is a very good documentary, focusing on 1977 and the 'News Of The World' album and North American tour. Some of the footage in the recording studio and soundchecks is particularly interesting, alongside very good quality footage of the Houston show.

'Queen: Rock The World' is a slightly different version of the documentary, although the two are essentially the same. The main difference is that it includes footage of the Queen + Adam Lambert 2017 North American tour at the start and end, and some narration from Bob Harris. It occasionally features alternative content or shots, and in some cases the footage in 'The American Dream' is in black and white whereas 'Queen: Rock The World' is in colour.

When the 'The American Dream' DVD loads, there is animation of Frank the robot, accompanied by an excerpt of 'We Will Rock You'. The main menu features an image based on the album cover, with various clips from the documentary in the background, and plays the same excerpt of 'We Will Rock You'. It has links to play the documentary, or enter the 'Chapters' or 'Subtitle Options' sub-menus. The 'Chapters' sub-menu is split over two screens, the first plays an excerpt of 'Sheer Heart Attack', while the second plays 'We Are The Champions'. The 'Subtitle Options' sub-menu allows you to choose subtitles in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, or none, and plays an excerpt of 'All Dead, All Dead'.

The DVD documentary is divided into 11 chapters as follows, with the final chapter marking the end. The content in red is in 'The American Dream' only, while the content in blue is in 'Queen: Rock The World' only.

 

Back Into The Studio

We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions

Taking Control

Sheer Heart Attack

The American Tour

It's Late

Spread Your Wings

My Melancholy Blues

Get Down, Make Love

We Are The Champions